"Nervous Conditionsis
that rare novel whose characters are unforgettable. . . .Nervous Conditions
introduces quite a new voice that, in its self-assurance,
sounds, at times, very old.
As if the African sisters, mothers,
and cousins of antiquity were, at last, beginning to reassert
themselves
in these perilous times, and to speak. It is an
expression of liberation not to be missed." --Alice Walker (From book jacket notes in U.S. ed. of Nervous
Conditions [Seattle: The Seal Press, 1988]).

George,
Rosemary Marangoly, and Helen Scott. "An Interview with
Tsitsi Dangarembga." Novel
(Spring 1993):309-319. [This interview was conducted at the African
Writers Festival, Brown Univ., Nov. 1991]
Excerpt from Introduction: "Written when the author
was twenty-five, Nervous Conditions put Dangarembga at
the forefront of the younger generation of African writers
producing literature in English today....Nervous Conditions
highlights that which is often effaced in postcolonial African
literature in English--the representation of young African girls
and women as worthy subjects of literature....While the critical
reception of this novel has focused mainly on the author's
feminist agenda, in [this] interview...Dangarembga stresses that
she has moved from a somewhat singular consideration of gender
politics to an appreciation of the complexities of the politics
of postcolonial subjecthood" (309).Full text also available from EBSCOHost Academic Search Elite, Article
No. 9312270407.

Tsitsi Dangarembga (b.
1959) was interviewed 4 Sept. 1989 in London by Jane Wilkinson,and I here highlight some points made in that interview. There
seem to be many autobiographical parallels between Tsitsis
and Tambus lives, although Tambudzai (supposed to be 13 in
1968 in the novel) would be slightly older than Dangarembga (who
was 9 in 1968). Dangarembga says that she wrote of "things I
had observed and had had direct experience with," but
"larger than any one persons own tragedies [with]
a wider implication and origin and therefore were things that
needed to be told" (190).

One important theme in Nervous
Conditions is that of remembering and forgettingespecially
the danger of Tambus forgetting who she is, where she came
fromas her brother Nhamo did. Dangarembga acknowledges this
in the interview (191). "I personally do not have a fund of
our cultural tradition or oral history to draw from, but I really
did feel that if I am able to put down the little I know then
its a start" (191). Nyasha, the author says,
doesnt have anything to forget, for she never knew, was
never taught her culture and originsand this forms
"some great big gap inside her." "Tambudzai, on
the other hand is quite valid in saying that she cant
forget because she has that kind of experience. Nyasha is so
worried about forgetting because its not there for her to
remember. Tambudzai is so sure that this is the framework of her
very being that there is no way that she would be able to forget
it" (191-192).

Dangarembga was born in Zimbabwe (then
Rhodesia), spent ages 2-6 in Britain where she began her
schooling. She notes that she and her brother began to speak
English there "as a matter of course and forgot most of the
Shona that we had learnt" (196). When they returned to
Zimbabwe, when she was six, she learned Shona again and later
attended mission school in Mutare and then a private American
convent school. Dangarembga notes that she didnt learn
"much about anything indigenous at all" in these
schools (190). She cites one problem that Zimbabwean people of
her generationand Nyashashave is "that we
really dont have a tangible history that we can relate
to" (191); "that was the [colonized] system we were
living under. Even the history was written in such a way that a
child who did not want to accept that had to reject it and have
nothing"which, she states, is Nyashas problem
(198). Dangarembga also calls her first language Englishthe
language used all through her educationand Shona her second
language: "Sometimes I worry about Shona: how long its
going to survive .There are very few people who can speak
good Shona and even fewer who can write it. Maybe weve
caught it just in time with the [Zimbabwean] Governments
policies of traditional culture and so forth, so maybe its
not as sad as it seems" (196). Later on when Dangarembga was
working in a publishing house, Zimbabwean historians were
beginning to "rewrite the history. I was editing this Grade
Seven text and I can remember saying to my editor that, if I had
read that particular version of history when I had been at
school, I would have been a much more integrated person"
(197-198).

Dangarembga went back to England, to
Cambridge Univ. in 1977, to study medicine, but returned
to Zimbabwe in 1980, just before independence (earned after some
15 years of warfare). It was then, Dangarembga says in the
interview, that she "began to feel the need for an African
literature that I could read and identify with," first
through reading "Afro-American women writers"
(194-195). During independence celebrations, she heard a
beautiful Shona poem recitedan oral arts performance, not a
written poemand "it brought back to me that we have an
oral language here. It isnt written, its oral, and
when it is reproduced in the medium in which it is meant to be,
it is absolutely astounding. But it was also a painful
experience: to think wed lost so much of it."
(195)this "wealth of literature" that hadnt
been written down. "It is good to have people like Achebe
and Ngugi wa Thiongo. They were the people I think who
really pointed me in the direction of African literature as such
as opposed to Afro-American literature" (195).

She worked in an ad agency, studied
psychology at the Univ. of Zimbabwe, then enrolled in a drama
group, found an outlet for her creative leanings, and
wrote 3 plays, including She No Longer Weeps (1987).
Dangarembga notes that "There were simply no plays with
roles for black women, or at least we didnt have access to
them at the time. The writers in Zimbabwe were basically men at
the time. And so I really didnt see that the situation
would be remedied unless some woman sat down and wrote something,
so thats what I did!" (196). Nervous Conditions
was Dangarembgas first novel, written in 1985 and published
in 1988. Dangarembga had some trouble getting her novel accepted
for publication until she took it to a womens publishing
house [Doris "Lessing explains how Nervous Conditions
was rejected by four Zimbabwe publishers, and was not published
within the country until Women's Press in London first published
it. According to Lessing, it was "criticized by male critics
as being 'negative,' and presenting an unfair picture of the
lives of black women" (423; cited in Saliba n.
1)].

When asked why she wrote about
childhood, Dangarembga says that "if at the age of
twenty-six somebody has a story to tell its likely to be
about growing up! Also Im always conscious at the back of
my mind that there is very little that a woman in Zimbabwe can
pick up  in Zimbabwe today  and say yes, I know,
thats me .Because I know I felt that gap so
dreadfully" (197) of there being very little literature by
and about African women that she could relate to. After receiving
the Commonwealth Writers Award in August 1989, she went to
Berlin to study filmmaking. (She has since directed the film Everybodys
Child.) Dangarembga says there are many Zimbabwean women
writers now, but most write in either Shona or Ndebele so they
havent acquired an international audience (197).

Tambudzai or Tambu:
the narrator and one of the main characters of the novel.

Mainini (Mother
in Shona: see below) refers to Tambus mother, and she is
cited as one of the four women Tambu loved whose story the novel
is intended to tell. She is resident Mother of the
Sigauke homestead and called Mainini by other relatives in
respect of her position; her given name is sometimes appended, as
when she is called Mainini MaShingayi.

Jeremiah is the
Christianized name of Tambus father; he is
Babamukurus brother.

Nhamo:
Tambus older brother who dies early in the novel; son of
Jeremiah and Mainini MaShingayi

Netsai and Rambanai
are Tambus sisters; later a brother Dambudzai is
also born.

Babamukuru: the
head of the Siguake family and Tambus uncle; after
completing his education in England from 1960-1965, Babamurkuru
returned to Rhodesia to assume the position of headmaster of the
primary level of the mission school at Umtali; he has the title
of Academic Director of the protestant churchs Manicaland
region. He is also called Babawa Chido by his wife. Lucia
early on calls him her mwaramu, an assertion of claim to
patrilineal relationship (see below) and a male relational title
of respect. Later, however, when she seeks to assert a stronger
claim of patrilineal kinship relation in Umtali, Lucia calls him
Babamukuru, a more dignified term of higher respect
for his position as head of the Sigauke family.

Maiguru is
Babamukurus educated wife, and also one of the four women
Tambu loved whose story the novel is intended to tell. Maiguru
also teaches at the Umtali mission school; she is mother to Chido
(son) and Nyasha. Her husband sometimes calls her MaChido;
Lucia refers to her a Maiguruku (-ku a
familiarizing suffix).

Nyasha is a
second major character in the novel, another one of the four
women Tambu loved whose story the novel is intended to tell.
Nyasha is Babamukuru and Maigurus daughter, Tambus
beloved cousin and close friend. She is called
Anglicized because she has spent her early years of
education in England with her parents, speaks British English,
and has adopted English ways.

Chido is
Nyashas brother and Tambus male cousin, another
Anglicized Sigauke. He attends the elite and costly
multiracial government school in Salisbury with his white
friends, Mr. Bakers sons.

Anna is
Babamukuru and Maigurus serving woman

Lucia is the
younger sister of Tambus mother Mainini, who comes to the
homestead to to help with the work when her sister is ailing.

Takesure is a
distant male cousin of Babamukuru; he comes to live at the
Sigauke homestead ostensibly to help Jeremiah with the work.

Mr. Baker is one
of the strange whites at the Umtali mission; his
children are Nyaradzo (daughter), a good friend and
agemate of Nyashas; Andrew and Brian, Mr.
Bakers sons, are good friends and school fellows of Chido.

Babamunini Thomas
is brother to Babamukuru and Jeremiah, a male patriarch of the
Sigauke clan.

Mainini Patience
is Babamunini Thomas wife.

Tete Gladys is
sister (of the womb) to Babamukuru, Jeremiah, and
Babamunini Thomas, a female patriarch of the Sigauke clan.

The Shona, including the
Siguake family, follow a patrilineal (descent through
males) kinship system , and practice patrilocality
whereby, after marriage, the bride leaves her home to live with
or near her husbands family. Under patriliny, the lines of
descent and authority are traced through fathers: a man and his
brothers, their children, and their sons children are
counted members of the same descent group. Fathers, and the
familys male head of the family especially, are owed
respect and obedience as the immediate representative of the
lineage or clan (often identified by a totem).
Children tend to view fathers and male family heads as
emotionally distant disciplinary authorities, whatever the degree
of affection they may have for each other. A wife, at the time of
her marriage, exchanges the authority of her father for that of
her husband, and in many patrilineal societies of southern
Africa, a wife is gradually absorbed into her husbands
patrilineal descent group. Women are also counted members of
patrilineal descent group, but a sisters or daughters
children will belong to their fathers rather than their
mothers kinship groups. Matrilineal (mothers
side) links are of secondary importance in the social
scheme. (Note that Maiguru, followed by Lucia, may upon occasion
dissociate themselves from the patrilineally traced clan of their
husbands.)

Patrilineal Shona
marriages, and the children that result, are traditionally
legitimized by exchange of roora, or
bridewealth, in which the brides family group
accepts livestock, other movable property, and more recently cash
or opportunities for earning cash, in compensation for the loss
of their daughters labor and fertility. Roora is
rarely paid in full or all at once, for the brides group
often maintains leverage over their in-laws by keeping the groom
and his kin in their debt (note that Takesure is still paying off
roora for his second wife). Bridewealth transactions have
traditionally been understood, not as calculated buying and
selling of wives, but as symbolic tokens of womens value.
More recently, however, with the monetized economic shift to
migrant labor systems or cash cropping in Africa, bridewealth
practices have often been transformed from cooperative alliances
between two extended families into purely private transactions
between the brides husband and her father--they alone may
calculate the brides monetary value and tend to treat the
bride as a commodity. This transformation has tended to foster
economic individualism and commoditize social relations with
devastating effects on women of Shona, Zulu, Swazi, and other
patrilineal peoples of southeast Africa.

I thank
Katrina Daly Thompson, Dept. of African Languages and
Literature, who has corrected some of my mistranslations of Shona
relational titles below:

Siguake Family
Patriarchy consists of:

Babamukuru, who
is "the
head of the family, but not the extended family and
certainly not the clan. T
his is why Tambu is so confused when she has to serve all the men in
the family"(Thompson)

Jeremiah

Babamunini
Thomas, and

Tete Gladys -
"more specifically the tete is the father's sister,
who is given patriarchal respect because she is from
the
male side of the family; all other aunts would be "mainini"s. Thus in the novel
only Gladys, Tambudzai's father's sister
is Tete; all other aunts are "mainini"s or "maiguru" (Thompson)

These characters are the
participants in the family dare, or meeting of the family
patriarchy to address serious family business, recounted in
chapter 7. Shona kinship relations are complex and hierarchical;
the terms used variously to refer to the novels characters
give us some indication of the multiple and confusing titles of
respect and status operative in familial relationships.

Baba is a
relational title of respect for adult male fathers in
Shona.

Mainini literally means "'Little/Young
Mother' but is used for an aunt married to a
younger male of the family. "Amai" (often
shortened to "Mai") is the correct word for
mother. Thus the husband of a Mainini is
"Babumunini" (Little/Young Father) and a
"Maiguru" is the opposite, meaning "Big
Mother" or aunt married to the eldest male in the
family (Babamukuru, Big/Elder Father)" (Thompson)

Mukoma, mukoma "means older sibling
of the same sex as the speaker. So a girl's mukoma would be her older sister; Tambu
and her sister use the term incorrectly in the novel to
refer to Nhamo, who should be called
their 'hanzvadzi' (sibling of the opposite
sex)"
(Thompson)

Sisi is
sister in Shona, and a relational title for unmarried
females of a family

Tete is
aunt in Shona, and a relational title of respect for
adult females of a family

Nyamashewe
is an opening ritual greeting, a paying of respects
followed by formal inquiries after others health,
etc.

Rhodesia: at the
time (1960s and early 1970s) of the events recounted in Nervous
Conditions, the name of the southeast African country,
colonized by the British, in which the characters live. At
independence in 1980, the country was renamed Zimbabwe
(stone house in Shona). The capital of Rhodesia is Salisbury,
renamed Harare in post-independence Zimbabe. Another major
city mentioned is Bulawayo.

The homestead:
the ancestral homesite and land of the Siguake family, of whom
Babawamukuru is the head. Tambus father, mother, children,
and other relatives, live at the rural Siguake homestead, which
is 20 miles from the town of Umtali.

kraal is
traditionally the cattle enclosure central to a homestead; kraal
is an Afrikaans (Africanized Dutch) word of southern Africa.

hozi is a "a building used to store
grain. In certain times of the year, if emptied of grain, it
might be used to house guests" (Thompson), one of several structures of
the homestead

Nyamarira River,
near the homestead of the Siguake family.

Regional District
Council Houses of the government are mentioned as being less
than a mile from Tambus childhood washing places on the
Nyamarira River.

Rutviki School is
the local African school where Tambu begins her education, near
the homestead.

Umtali refers to
the town where the mission school is located, as well as
the communal lands of the same region.

The mission school
at Umtali is a British Protestant mission (therefore probably
Church of England or Anglican), and the school is primarily for
black African children, although some of the white
missionary-teachers children, like Nyaradzo, also
attend; Babamukuru is the headmaster of the primary levels and
Maiguru also teaches there. This is the school that first Nhamo,
then Tambu attends, as well as Nyasha.(To get an idea of what
such mission schools looked like, click this UNESCO exhibit Mission Settlements in
South Africa.)

Rhodesia school
system, based on the British system, is divided into primary
and secondary divisions, similar to U.S. K-12 public school
system. Successively numbered forms are broken down into standards,
categories like grades in U.S. schools, but the
age equivalents are different: for example, 13-year-old Tambu
mentions being in Standard 3 the year her brother died
(1968), which is below the Standard 5 level (usually 13-14
year olds) she would have been in had she been able to attend
school continuously. To continue their schooling, African
children must pass fiercely competitive examinations administered
frequently; at each higher level, fewer places are available for
qualifying black Africans, and the fees are often too expensive
even for the qualified African children to attend.

Beit Hall is site
of the Christmas Party of chapter 6, and is located at the Umtali
mission school where Babamukuru is headmaster

Young Ladies College
of the Sacret Heart is the exclusive, expensive, private
Roman Catholic convent school, located in Salisbury, at which
Tambu earns one of the few places and scholarships reserved for
black African girls. Tambu mentions that at Sacred Heart she can
continue study all the way to A Level of Rhodesian
pre-university education without having to take and pass the the
yearly competitive exams continually threatening to exclude
African children from continuing their education.

Title
& Epigraph: Read the two critics'
commentary below and consider their interpretations of
signficance of the title and epigraph to Dangarembga's novel:

"The title, Nervous
Conditions, comes from a statement
Dangarembga uses as the prologue to her novel - 'The condition of
native is a nervous condition' - taken from the
[Jean-Paul Sartre's] introduction to Frantz Fanon's The Wretched
of the Earth(1963),
in which he wrote about the psychosocial effects of colonization.
Thus, illness is a preexistent, thematic condition under which
the events of the novel take place. For Nyasha and Tambu, the
condition of native as a nervous condition comprises not only
colonization but also the condition of gender and the condition
of female education. Their attempts to function in a society that
does not allow them socially acceptable verbal or written outlets
as educated, female Africans result in their being punished for
inappropriate expressions of dissatisfaction and anger" (Hill).

"Nervous Conditions
acquires its title from Jean-Paul Sartre's introduction to Frantz Fanon's The
Wretched of the Earth[first published in 1963], which states, 'The
colonial condition is a nervous condition.' The effects
of colonization permeate the text, which examines a plurality of
nervous conditions, especially sexual colonization resulting from
the social construction of male privilege within African society.
Tambudzai's coming-of-age story takes place within this context
and charts the resistances of various female characters within
her extended family to the multiple oppressions of sexism,
racism, colonialism, and capitalism" (Saliba).

Ch.
1 (pp. 1-12), Ch. 2 (pp. 13-34), and Ch. 3 (pp. 35-57)

1. The narrator
Tambudzai, or Tambu, opens the novel by stating flatly, I
was not sorry when my brother died. She later brings us
back to opening moment of the novel again in chapter 3, when
Nhamo is late returning from school as expected.Why isnt
Tambudzai sorry that her brother Nhamo has died? Trace the
deterioration of Tambus relationship with Nhamo.

2. What are the burdens
of womanhood, according to Tambus mother? Describe
Tambus relationship with her father Jeremiah.

3. Why is Tambus
grandmothers fairy tale story of the family
significant?

4. How do Tambu and the
rest of the family react to Babamukuru, Maiguru, Nyasha, and
Chido, all newly returned from England, at the clan gathering of
chapter 3?

5. Why has Babamukuru
determined that Nhamo, rather than Tambu, should come live with
him at the Umtali mission and continue his education at the
mission school? Why does Babamukuru decide Tambu should go to the
mission school after Nhamo dies?

6. How does Tambus
mother Mainini react to her sons death? On what or whom
does she blame his death?

7. What effect does
Dangarembgas untranslated Shona terms have on your reading
of the novel? Compare/contrast the opening chapters of
Dangarembgas novel to Things Fall Apart. Consider
especially the narrator or narrative voices of the two novels:
from whose perspective(s) are these two stories told, and whose
stories are being told in each novel?

8. Describe Tambus
responses and feelings when she first comes to live at the
mission and go to the mission school.

9. Compare the
characters of Tambu and Nyasha as they are revealed to us once
the girls begin to share a room at the mission house. Describe
the nature and trace the development of their friendship. Why is
Tambu both attracted to and disapproving of her cousin? How do
their attitudes toward Babamukuru and Maiguru differ?

10. Describe the
characters and relationship of Babamukuru and Maiguru at home at
the mission. Describe their relationships to their children Chido
and Nyasha. Consider Tambus first formal interview with
Babamukuru in the living room the evening of her arrival: what
does it reveal about Tambus relationship with Babamukuru,
the head of the Sigauke family?

11. Why does Tambu feel
she has undergone a reincarnation (p. 92) at the
mission? What are her successes in this new life? What transpires
when she begins to menstruate?

12. Why is Tambu so
surprised to learn that Maiguru has earned a masters
degree?

Ch.
6 (pp. 103-119)

13. Describe the
categories of white people that Tambu observes at the mission.

14. Why do all the black
African children want to go to the multiracial government
schools, like the one where Chido attends? How did Chido get into
that school?

15. Why is Nyasha so
nervous about passing her Form 2 examinations? Why
does she say shed almost like to fail to see how her father
would respond?

16. Trace the
significant moments of the scene at the Beit Hall Christmas Party
and its aftermath. Why do Nyasha and her father fight?

18. Why does Nyasha seem
to be burning herself out (p. 116)? Why does Nyasha
want to resist getting comfortable and used to the
way things are(p. 117)? How has her early life in
England shaped the way she is now? Interpret Tambus
characterization of Nyashas conflict as self versus
surrender and the content of sin (p. 118). What do you see
as the inner conflicts for Nyasha and Tambu? How does
Tambus thinking differ from Nyashas at this point?

19. In what way has
Tambu saved Nyashas life (p. 119)? Why does Tambu admire
her cousin?

Ch.
7 (pp. 120-148)

20. What reasons do you
think Chido, Nyasha, Tambu, and Maiguru might have for not
wanting to go to the homestead for Christmas holidays in December
1969? What are Tambus reactions to her return home?

21. Describe the
characters and situations of Lucia and Takesure. Why is
Babamukuru unhappy to see them at the homestead? What do we learn
of the past history of Lucia and her sister?

22. Consider the formal
scene of greetings in Maininis room. What is revealed by
Maininis interactions with Nyasha, Tambudzai, Babamukuru,
and Maiguru? How does Lucia behave and why?

23. The rest of the
Sigauke patriarchy comes to the homestead for the
Christmas holiday--though for Tambu it is no holiday,
she says (p. 133): why? What do the sleeping arrangements reveal
about the family hierarchy? What does the womens work
consist of?

24. Trace the important
events of the parallel scenes of the dare of the family
patriarchy, and the females in the kitchen. Why are all but Tete
Gladys excluded from the dare? Why is mainini
(Tambus mother) offended by Maigurus detachment and
why is she so bitter about Maiguru? Interpret Tambus
analysis of the womens situation on p. 138. Interpret
Nyashas later judgment that both Mainini MaShingayi
and Maiguru were showing their suffering p. 142).

25. What does Lucia do
when she interrupts the Sigauke patriarchys dare?
The case being discussed is initially identified by Babamukuru as
Takesures, but Lucia and Jeremiah are drawn into the matter
as parts of the family problem to be solved. What various
solutions are offered to the problem by Tete Gladys,
Takesure, Jeremiah? Why does Babamukuru object to his brother
Jeremiahs solution, and what solution does Babamukuru
propose instead? Why does Babamukuru prevail?

26. How does Nyasha
react to Tambus story of the outcome of the dare (pp.
147-148)? What does Tete Galdys conclude about the problem and
the solutions (p. 148)?

Ch.
8 (pp. 149-175)

27. Why does Tambu
object to her uncles plan that her parents have a church
wedding? What are the sources of conflict for Tambu such that
this business of the wedding become a complex problem
(p. 151) for her? How does Tambu see herself in comparison to her
cousin Nyasha? How does Babamukuru see the two girls?

28. Why does Tambu think
the men have underestimated Lucia? What does Lucia do after the
family dare? Why does Mainini have trouble making up her
mind (p. 153)? Why does Lucia come to the mission with her sister
and what is the outcome? How do Nyasha and Tambu differ in their
appraisal of Babamukuru getting Lucia a job?

29. Why does her
parents impending wedding become a bed of
confusion (p. 165) for Tambu? What does she do the on the
day of the wedding? What is Babamukurus reaction? What has
impelled Tambu to defy her uncle on this matter of the wedding?
What is her punishment?

30. Why does Maiguru
fight with and then leave Babamukuru for 5 days? How does Nyasah
view her mothers leaving? Why is Nyasha disappointed when
she learned where her mother has gone, and how does she react
when her mother returns home with her father?

Ch.
9 (pp. 176-190)

31. Why do the nuns come
to the mission school? Why is Tambu offered a place and a
scholarship at the exclusive Sacred Heart convent school? Why
does Nyasha think Tambu should not go? What is the process of
assimilation she describes on p. 179? Why is
Babamukuru also reluctant to let her go? How does Maiguru manage
to influence her husbands decision to let Tambu go to the
convent school?

32. During Christmas
vacation in December 1970, Maiguru refuses to go and stay at the
homestead: why? Why does Babamukuru decide to let Tambu go to the
convent school? What is Tambus mothers reaction to
the news? What role does Lucia play in helping Tambu take another
step toward what she calls her freedom?

33. How does Tambu
respond to others constant refrain that she not
forget (p. 188)? What might Tambu be in danger of
forgetting and why? Why does Tambu think she cannot
forget?

34. Describe the state
of Nyashas relationship with her father at the point when
Tambu leaves for the convent school.

Ch.
10 (pp. 191-204)

35. How does Tambu
respond to Sacred Heart when she first arrives? How does she view
my new life (p. 191)? Why isnt she missing
Nyasha during her first term?

36. Describe
Nyashas letters to Tambu while she is away at school,
especially the serious letter (p. 196). Tambu sees
little of Nyasha during her first term break, but in what state
does she find Nyasha at the August holiday? Examine Nyashas
break down (pp. 200-202): what do you think causes it? How does
Tambus mother account for Nyashas break down and many
of the other family problems she relates to
Englishness (pp. 202-203)? What suspicion
enters Tambus mind on p. 203?

37. Tambu tells us
seeds do grow p. 203: what does she mean? Why does
she no longer accept Sacred Heart as the sunrise on my
horizon? Interpret the narrators closing statements,
pp. 203-204. Where do you suppose Tambudzai is now and what might
she be doing, at the time when she set down this
story? What do you imagine that long and painful
process of expansion over many years has meant
to Tambudzai?

38. For what purpose(s)
do you think Dangarembga has appropriated* the
white mans education, language, and literary forms in
writing this novel? In what sense might you consider Nervous
Conditions a female response to African male
novels like Things Fall Apart? How do you think
Dangarembga sees her role as an African storyteller?

39. Identify what you
interpret to be major theme(s) of Nervous Conditions.
Does this title seem appropriate to you? Why or why not?

Aegerter, Lindsay Pentolfe. "A
Dialectic of Autonomy and Community: Tsitsi Dangarembga's Nervous
Conditions.(South African
novel)(Forum: After Empire II) Tulsa Studies in
Women's Literature 15.2(Fall
1996):231(10pp). Infotrac
2000 Expanded Academic ASAP, Article
A19155207: Abstract
only available] Abstract: "Zimbabwean writer Tsitsi Dangarembga's novel,
'Nervous Conditions,' presents African women characters who,
through action and dialogue, resist aspects of racism, sexism,
and oppression in their society while navigating their lives
within the margins of both traditional and Western colonial
cultures. Two of the main characters, Nyasha and Tambudzai
represent the Western-educated, urban African woman and the
traditional, rural African woman respectively. While both women
actively work to change their destinies, they find strength and
wholeness in their cultural identity when they come
together."

Hill, Janice E. "Purging a Plate Full of
Colonial History: The 'Nervous Conditions'
of Silent Girls." (Tsitsi Dangarembga's
novel)(Third World Women's Inscriptions)College
Literature 22.1(Feb 1995):78(13pp.) Infotrac 2000 Expanded Academic ASAP, Article
A16989112 [full text available] Abstract: "Tsitsi Dangarembga's novel 'Nervous Conditions'
focuses on the alienation of Shona women from restrictive
traditional practices. Barred by custom from disagreeing verbally
with their family, one woman chooses to rebel by feigning
paralysis while another refuses to eat food. In both cases, the
women express rebellion through the body. Dangarembga's novel
illustrates how the acquisition of education and the adoption of
Western ways can have painful consequences for modern African
women."
Full Text also available from EBSCOHost Academic
Search Elite, Article Number 9503290996.

Nair, Supriya, "Melancholic Women:
The Intellectual Hysteric(s) in Nervous
Conditions." Research
in African Literatures 26.2(Summer
1995):130(10pp). [Article
A17156438: full text available] Abstract:"Ngugi
wa Thiong-o, in his book 'Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of
Language in African Literature,'
condemns colonial education for alienating African intellectuals
from the people they are supposed to serve. Like many African
authors, Ngugi portrays males as the only ones capable of
reacting physically and psychologically to colonialism, while
female reactions to colonialism are often attributed to madness
or other biological conditions. However, in Tistsi Dangarembga's
'Nervous Conditions,' the female protagonist uses colonial
education to escape from her subordinate state and to achieve her
personal goals."
Full text also available from EBSCOHost Academic Search
Elite, Article No. 9508225322.

Nnaemeka, Obioma. "From Orality to
Writing: African Women Writers and the (Re)Inscription of
Womanhood." Research in African Literatures,
25.4(Winter 1994):137(21pp). [Article A16026677: full text available] Abstract:
"African women writers are redefining womanhood and
reclaiming their position in the literary tradition. Women played
a central role in African oral tradition both as performers and
subjects. Colonialism, with its strong patriarchal leanings,
established an educational order that privileged men and women
became objects. The emergence of writers such as Tsitsi
Dangarembga and Rebeka Njau will help to continue the struggle
for women."

Phillips, Maggi. "Engaging Dreams:
Alternative Perspectives on Flora Nwapa, Buchi Emecheta, Ama Ata
Aidoo, Bessie Head, and Tsitsi Dangarembga's Writing." (Cluster
on South African Writing) Research in African
Literatures 25.4(Winter 1994): 89(15pp). [Article A16026671: full text available] Abstract: "The writings of Flora Nwapa, Buchi Emecheta, Ama
Ata Aidoo, Bessie Head and Tsitsi Dangarembga, which have
frequently been interpreted in the context of the authors' race
and gender, offer interesting perspectives on reality through use
of dreams and dreaming. Critics who focus on the socio-political
aspects of their works miss the layered perceptions of reality.
Dreams become tools for reinterpreting history and reality, for
restoring spiritual vision and for reconstructing cultural
identity."

Saliba, Therese. "On the Bodies of Third World Women:
Cultural Impurity, Prostitution, and Other Nervous
Conditions." (Third World Women's Inscriptions) College
Literature 22.1(Feb 1995): 131(16pp). [Article A16989134: full text available] Abstract:
"The novel 'Woman at Point
Zero' by Egyptian writer Nawal El Saadawi and the novel 'Nervous
Conditions' by Zimbabwean writer Tsitsi Dangarembga provide
examples of Third World women's narratives that expose the
problems faced by postcolonial women as they ponder the realities
of the class systems in their countries. Both books succeed in
vividly dramatizing the issues of gender and class oppression
through the stories of their protagonists."
Full text also available from EBSCOHost Academic
Search Elite, Article No. 9503291007.

Uwakweh, Pauline Ada. "Debunking
Patriarchy: The Liberational Quality of Voicing in Tsitsi
Dangarembga's Nervous Conditions."
(New Voices in African Literature) Research in
African Literatures 26.1(Spring 1995):
75(10pp). [Article
A16556791: full text available] Abstract:
"Tsitsi Dangarembga's 'Nervous Conditions' is praiseworthy
because it belongs to a special category of women's writing that
is consciously challenging the male hegemony in Zimbabwean
society. Dangarembga takes up issues such as female subordination
and its intersection with colonialization. Dangarembga's use of
the autobiographical mode makes her work self-referential and the
novel that argues for voice for all women becomes her way of
establishing her voice in the male-dominated Zimbabwean literary
circle."
Full text also available from EBSCOHost Academic Search
Elite, Article No. 9503022587.

Aegerter, Lindasy Pentolf. "A Dialectic of Autonomy and Community:
Tsitsi Dangarembga's Nervous Conditions." Tulsa Studies in
Women's Literature 15.2 (Fall 1996): 231 (10pp). EBSCOHost Academic Search
Elite Article No. 9705185073.
Abstract: "Comments on the dialectic of autonomy and community from
the book `Nervous Conditions,' by Tsitsi Dangarembga. South
African women's resistance to social silencing and political disenfranchisement;
Oppression according to race, class, gender and culture; Restoration of
centrality in culture and self-definition; Description of an African woman."

Godwin, Peter, and Inn Hancock. "Rhodesians
Never Die": The Impact of War and Political Change on White
Rhodesia, c. 1970-1980. New York: Oxford UP, 1993.

Harlow, Barbara. Resistance
Literature. New York: Methuen, 1987.

Kelly, Gail P., and Carolyn M. Elliott, eds. Women's
Education in the Third World: Comparative Perspectives.
Albany: State U of New York P, 1982.

Kincaid, Jamaica. "Flowers of Evil." New
Yorker 5 October 1992, 154 (5 pp.). EBSCOHost Academic Search
Elite, Article No. 9210120995.
Abstract: "Discusses the author's feelings about the relationship
between gardening and conquest of the garden's obstacles to growing beautiful
plants. The book `Pleasures of the Garden: Images from the Metropolitan Museum
of Art,' by Mac Griswold; The book `Nervous Conditions,' by Tsitsi Dangarembga;
More."